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My new and improved Bloggular Device. For the future.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Mine Notebook

Wow, its been a very long while since I have posted. For this, I feel badly. So, with some begging and pleading from Nick and Molly (more like "you should post....." "okay"), here I am again. A few things: ahem ahem:

Fact the First: The Messiah is amazing. I love that music, whether it be singing it or listening to it. I am definitely going to go to the sing in thing at Abravanel Hall next year, no battle. I am already awaiting it eagerly. I already miss singing the Messia, and we just barely had our concert. Lets give Handel a round of applause, shall we? (h5)

Fact the Second: after some reflection, I am actually excited about this new English assignment. We have to keep a notebook with us for the rest of the year in which we can record our thoughts and feelings on certain observations we may make throughout the days. At first, I just saw it as a lame way to have our English teacher to make us write. Now I see it as motivation to get back into writing in my journal daily. I will be recording tidbits here and there every day in my notebook--things that I can look back at in the years to come to help me remember the Me of the Present--and use my notes for the outline of a quick journal entry every day. I have misplaced so many memories that it makes me sad to think about all the times, both good and bad, that I have forgotten. Let this be motivation for us all to record our daily happenings, that he present may not be lost to the past.

Fact the Third: life is great. With such a great family, so many wonderful friends, my education, talents, and so many opportunities, I can't see how my life could get much better. All I can say is Glory to God in the Highest. Amen, amen, amen, and so forth, etc.

Monday, December 04, 2006

English Synthesis Essay: Puritan Perfection

Puritan Perfection

In the proximity of the Atlantic tides where the forests were old and the soil virgin lay the beginnings of something new. The world was being reborn through the birth of Puritan civilization in the New World. With a new life ahead of them, these plain people set out to shape a community, building it on the only foundations they had: a common goal and a hope for something better. Board by board, their future was built. The land was tamed, and subsistence became their way of life. Conditions were grim, but they carried on, eyes always on their goal. They had braved the New World, endured everything that was thrown at them, and laid the cornerstones of their foundations deep. Yet something in their planning went awry. Somehow, despite their careful planning, terrible things were seen coming from inside their own community that they had strived so diligently to fortify. Injustices were committed against each other. Individuals were publicly shamed and tormented by their own. In time, they would see one another on the gallows. Some of us today say that people such as this are not worth learning about. We call them shady, abstract, or even cruel. We see their crimes as unforgivable, and cannot find any reason to study their history. These assumptions are shallow. There is something to be learned from their example. The Puritan people were united, and shared common aspirations, just as we do today, but in the end, they could not meet their goal. Perhaps, there is more than meets the eye to these bleak people. We should study them to understand what went wrong in their society, and perhaps, we may find a better outcome than they did by learning from their example.

To better understand these people, we must first be aware of what their common goal was that they strived so hard to achieve. The Puritan people came across the Atlantic Ocean from England to rid themselves of the Anglican Church which they viewed as corrupt. Away from oppression and free to do as they pleased, they set out to purify the church that they had left behind. Their goal was nothing short of perfection. In the poems “Huswifery” and “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly”, written by Edward Taylor, a Puritan, it is evident that the Puritans had a strong belief that the only way that they could be redeemed was through God’s grace. It was always in their prayers that God would make them His tools and fill them with glory so they could glorify Him in return. They strove to cleanse all sin from their community and to remove pride and vainful things from their lives.

To accomplish this great thing that they hoped for, certain measures were taken in the community to provide protection from the Black Man. As a basic defense, congregations were assembled regularly around Reverends who gave them instruction and motivation. At times, their words were consoling, and at others, they were damming. In the words of Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan Reverend, “the wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come.” For many, the sermons they heard kept them on the straight and narrow path and prompted them to repent. For others, more harsh methods were needed. Just as The Crucible depicts, a court system was set up, in which suspected sinners were prompted to confess, and known sinners forcefully purged. In The Scarlet Letter, we learn that the founders of new Puritan colonies would build a prison as soon as their community was under way. They knew that crimes would be committed along the people’s path to God, and by making the prison one of the first things they built, they outfitted themselves with means of controlling and persuading those that would be reluctant to repent.

While their intentions of becoming perfect were good, their methods of obtaining perfection had faults. Their system was meant to help individuals and the society as a whole, but in the end it hurt their progress more than it helped. Humans are bound to make mistakes. Greed and corruption abide in us all. Even when our intentions are for the best, we make mistakes that bring us down as well as those around us. The court systems and social unity were organized to help bring everyone to justice. Only human desire and emotion were the downfall of this harmony. Just as The Crucible depicts, Puritan judges could be too easily swayed from just decisions. Their desire for status and wealth, fear of repercussions of their verdict, and human prejudices would move even the wisest and most educated among them to unfair decisions. The social unity they tried to establish was also corrupted by these human traits. It was a goal of human perfection brought down by human imperfection; an impossible dream.

In the proximity of empty space and lifeless planets, where many an age and people have survived, something ancient is coming to an end. The world has been reborn through the birth of democracy, technology, and religion the likes of which has never before been seen. With a new life ahead of us, we have set out to shape a world with the only foundation we have: a hope for something better.

When we look at ourselves in this light, a connection can be made between ourselves and the Puritan people who we call shady, abstract, and cruel. We have something new to build a better world for ourselves with, just as they had. Our hope for something better is something we share with the Puritans, is it not? But where is our common goal? What aspiration do we share as a nation, or as a world? Before we judge the Puritan people, let us first unite ourselves. The Puritans had the greatest goal that none of us could hope to achieve, and they fought to achieve it. Although the things they did could be considered harsh and damming, their intentions were in the right place. Being human, they were unable to reach perfection; does that give us a right to ignore these people and put ourselves above them? He who is without sin among us, let him cast the first stone at them. We are just as human and cruel as they were, and no more perfect, nor are we united as they were. The crimes we commit cannot be ignored; the injustices of the world today are just as cruel as those of their day. There is something to be learned from the example of the Puritans. They did what they knew how to do to achieve something great. They did not meet their goal, but they put forth all their effort in a great attempt to do so. The world of today would be much different if we applied our knowledge and technology with their effort in meeting a goal such as theirs. Let us learn from the Puritan example, and make the world a better place.


Hope you guys liked it...I dont know how good it was, but I saw it going well in my head. Who knows what happened on paper. Let me know how you liked it, eh?